MA-SEN Megathread: Senator Markey wins

[Roronoa D. Law]

I never cared for party infighting. Markey is a great senator and Kennedy is still young this makes no sense to me.

[Roronoa D. Law]

I'm so glad I never got engaged into this race.

[Roronoa D. Law]

What's ironic is that many socialist on here and Twitter constantly point to the New Deal and the Great Society as the best example of American liberalism. But both of those bills were created by two men from wealthy political dynasties who were the literal definition of establishment Democrats.

[Roronoa D. Law]

What's ironic is that many socialist on here and Twitter constantly point to the New Deal and the Great Society as the best example of American liberalism. But both of those bills were created by two men from wealthy political dynasties who were the literal definition of establishment Democrats.

I'm assuming you're talking about FDR and Kennedy. Well first of all, the Great Society was LBJ not Kennedy. Second of all, it's not like they were one giant bill they were drafted by many different legislators. For example, the 1933 Banking Act was drafted by Steagall.  The Social Security Amendments of 1965 was drafted by Wilbur Mills.

Regardless, they may have been the literal definition of establishment Democrats then. That doesn't mean they'd be the literal definition of establishment Democrats now.

No, I was talking LBJ. He is greatest example of someone who used political office to amass a fortune.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Wait a minute isn't Pelosi to the left of Markey.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Wait a minute isn't Pelosi to the left of Markey.

Pelosi supports house incumbents, be they Conservadems like Cuellar or radicals like Omar. This is a House vs Senate primary when it comes to endorsements, so it makes sense that the speaker would endorse her House colleague.

But the Establishment!

[Roronoa D. Law]

This thread is a cesspool.

[Roronoa D. Law]

This thread is a cesspool.

You accused me of fabricating stories that provided inconvenient truths about your preferred VP's support base. If anyone in this thread has no room to talk about civility, it's you.

Child, calm down. You're taking this thing too seriously.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Off-topic but why won't Matt Damon get into politics?

[Roronoa D. Law]

I wonder who turns their back on who first then. Markey or Progressives because it going to come.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Why is Kennedy doing so well in minority areas? Is it perhaps nostalgia for his grandfather, who was beloved by black voters? Or his recent appeals to those voters on racial justice issues?

Nostalgia, every black grandparent had a picture of MLK and JFK in their house. My parents did too in our first house. 

[Roronoa D. Law]

Its amazing how much these results are correlated by income. Newton is one of the richest towns in MA and Springfield is one of the poorest.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Why is Kennedy doing so well in minority areas? Is it perhaps nostalgia for his grandfather, who was beloved by black voters? Or his recent appeals to those voters on racial justice issues?

Maybe because Markey opposed desegregation of Boston schools? Just a thought

Cry more and then vote Markey this November )

I just find it funny. Markey is an old career politician who voted for the 1994 Crime Bill, the Iraq War, and has been accused of not adequately supporting desegregation back in the day.

“Progressives” made Joe Biden out to be horrible for all of these things, yet passionately defend Markey. Who is being challenged by someone with just as progressive ideas as he has but is much younger.

There is no ideological consistency here. It just goes to show how much of the “progressive” vs. “establishment” divide is style and how little of it is substance.

That's an argument against Markey supporters, not Ed Markey

I’m not saying otherwise. Personally I don’t really care who wins this primary, and thought from the start Kennedy might have been making a mistake in running. I just find this tribalism to be bizarre, inconsistent, petty, and hypocritical. I also hope Kennedy’s career isn’t ruined over this. That would be a shame.

Didn't the JFK avoid taking a strong stance on civil rights for fear of losing southern votes?

It's a rhetorical question. of course he did.

I mean so did Carter. It just further shows that change happens from the most unlikely people.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Markey's numbers in Natick and Newton compared against Kennedy's numbers in Springfield and Worcester make one thing clear: this race has never been about progressive vs establishment or house vs senate. It's about the wealthy (Markey's base) vs everyone ese (Kennedy's base). So much for being on the side of the working man, Markey bros.

Have you seen western Mass or the northeast?? Small town Massachusetts is Markey country.

This is the worst possible take for so many reasons.

There does seem to be a correlation between income and support for Markey. Admas has the lowest income for a town in Berkshire county and went for Kennedy but next door in Williamston the wealthiest town in Berkshire county went heavy for Markey.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Maybe the ones with European sounding names.

That's what I mean: it's basically become impossible to win a GOP primary with a non-"white" sounding name. (As in South Asian/African/Middle Eastern, not Irish/Italian/Polish.)

One exception: Mike Garcia beating Steve Knight.

Mike Garcia is still a pretty White sounding name. It could be Hispanic, or it could be Spanish. It's not like as nonwhite a name as like, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez or Raul Grijalva.

But yeah it'll be interesting to see how it goes in the future. As Hispanics assimilate more into White society, there should be GOP candidates of Hispanic origin in the long term.

The opposite is more likely to happen look at Brazil.

[Roronoa D. Law]

So now that Markey has won can progressively finally admit this race was more about Markey's successor. We went through the same thing with Harris as VP.

[Roronoa D. Law]

AOC was smart with what she did. She knew that if Kennedy had won he would have that seat for as long as he wants. She wanted Pressley to have that seat because I think Markey was always looking at retiring in 2026. Warren probably looking at 2030. I think Kennedy saw that too and thought Markey would be easier to beat now.

Still not too late for him. The Massachusetts bench like New Jersey has aged quite a bit. Everybody outside of Pressley is meh and then there's Moulton.

[Roronoa D. Law]

I'm kind of skeptical that Pressley would be favored against Kennedy as well. It would probably be like MD GOV in 2014, MD 2016 Senate primary, or even the Atlanta 2017 mayoral election.

We saw the black candidates as the heavy favorites at the beginning of the race only to lose ( or almost in Bottoms case) to a white candidate. In what many black activists saw as a stab in the back by white Democrats.

Pressley should beat Kennedy but given the negative/racist trope about Boston, I could see a Bradley Effect happen. Plus I don't put it behind MA Dems to nominate Pressley only to vote for Baker in the general election especially if 2026 is a potential Harris midterm.